Clumsy Bookworm
by Jelbertie
Summary: When there's a new baby in the house and she realizes that she is not the centre of her parents' attention anymore, five year old Liz Sutton finds other ways to fill her time than playing with her parents. However, when you're not coordinated in the slightest, things are bound to go wrong.


**Hello there people, this is the fourth in my little series of oneshots, and I really like it, so I hope you do too ^_^ Special thanks to Lailea, once again, for checking over this before I uploaded it.**

When you have a new baby in the house, that baby takes up all of your time and energy. Whether it's the waking up in the middle of the night because they're hungry or having to stop them from swallowing anything they can fit in their mouth. However, to Mr and Mrs Sutton, all of the sleepless nights and panicked moments were worth it, because Ellie Sutton was one of the cutest, most beautiful babies they had ever seen.

They did love the times when little Ellie was asleep though, the times when it was most likely that they would get some peace and quiet. They say most likely, because Ellie wasn't their only daughter, there was little Liz as well.

Liz had welcomed Ellie into the family enthusiastically, but after a couple of months it became impossible to ignore that she was no longer the centre of attention. Not that Liz minded _too_ much, it was just something else she had to adapt to with the arrival of someone new in the house.

Although Liz _did_ feel the need to preoccupy herself, and on that particular Saturday, the five year old decided to experiment with how different ingredients mixed together to form food. Besides, it had always been a mystery to the little genius how you could put random substances together and they'd make something like incredibly delicious cookie dough. How would that actually work?

It took Liz hours to climb throughout her family kitchen so that she could find everything that she wanted. After the ingredients had all been mixed together, she had to be rather imaginative with how she reached the top shelves, where the cookies were kept. After all, she needed something to compare her final result to, and so she had to think of a way to reach the cookie jar.

Really, Mom and Dad had been very smart to put it up there. It took many bowls and boxes on top of each other to finally reach it, although Liz's less than average height for her age didn't help either. Everything looked good and sturdy, and it should all balance each other out in theory, but there were some things you just couldn't predict.

Liz had just reached the top of her stack, the cookie jar just inches from her tiny hand when her foot slipped. With a little scream, Liz toppled from the top of the tower and fell all the way to the Sutton's kitchen floor.

Mr and Mrs Sutton could hear the crash from Ellie's bedroom upstairs, and Mr Sutton told his wife to stay with the baby as he ran out of the room and into the kitchen as fast as he could. What he saw nearly made him cry, his little Liz was on the floor, out cold, with what looked like a broken left leg. Underneath her right leg looked like a smashed glass bowl and there was a sticky substance covering the bottom of her calf.

It was all too obvious what she had been trying to do, but Mr Sutton didn't care about stolen cookies as he picked Liz up carefully in his arms and ran to his car outside. On the way to the hospital, Mr Sutton called his wife to tell her what had happened and where he and his daughter were going. His wife was panicking, as any mother would, and making arrangements for a babysitter when he heard Mrs Sutton saying "Oopsy Daisy" and then the distinct sound of someone falling.

"Sweetheart! Are you alright?" He nearly yelled down the phone, just as he saw a sign for the nearest hospital.

"I'm fine, I'm fine. Just a little trip, you know what I'm like." She laughed a little hysterically. "How's Liz though, are you there yet?"

"She's still out, we're nearly there. I'll call when I can." Liz's dad said in relief, spotting immediately from where his daughter had inherited her clumsiness.

"I'll be there when I can." And with that, the Suttons hung up simultaneously.

To say the next few hours were unpleasant would be a severe understatement. Mr Sutton was constantly pacing as he waited for any news on his little girl's well-being. When his wife arrived, assuring him that Ellie was safe with her grandparents, they both just comforted each other until they could finally, after what felt like years, see their eldest daughter.

Liz looked just like she was sleeping, so peaceful and at ease. The only thing disrupting the image was the cast on the five year old's left leg. Mrs Sutton took her little girl's hand, and didn't look up from Liz's face even as the doctor came in.

Mr Sutton however, turned towards the new man in the room and shook his hand gratefully.

"Hello there Mr and Mrs Sutton, I'm Doctor Hall. Your daughter is perfectly fine, no complications, she just needs rest and will need crutches for the next few weeks."

"Well that's a relief, I guess." Mr Sutton smiled meekly.

"Would you like to hear something interesting?"

"Not really Doctor." Mrs Sutton sighed from her spot at Liz's bedside.

"About your daughter." The married couple looked at Doctor Hall inquisitively, their interests captured. "The cookie dough we found on her leg, did she make that?"

Mr Sutton looked at his wife incredulously. "She must've, why?"

"Well, you may want to look into your daughter's intelligence. That cookie dough was the new self-baking recipe that has just been released to the public, not even the competitors of the manufacturers have figured out the recipe yet."

Mr and Mrs Sutton laughed at what they had been told, but then looked at the seriousness of Doctor Hall's expression and they went silent. Mrs Sutton raised an eyebrow.

"And how do you know so much about the baking industry?"

"My wife." A look of understanding passed between the two men unnoticed by Liz's mother. "I think your daughter must've discovered that recipe on her own, there's no way else that I can see."

"Why are you telling us this?" Mr Sutton asked, before his wife could once again voice her disbelief.

"You may want to look into it. Besides, there's nothing else to report on her broken leg." And with that, Doctor Hall left the room.

When the Suttons were older, about ten years older in fact, they'd look back on that and silently thank Doctor Hall for giving to the family some news that would, although he had no way of knowing this, change Liz's future completely. After all, it's not every day that you're given the first hint that your daughter is a genius, albeit a rather clumsy one.


End file.
